Effects of milk thistle meal on performance, ileal bacterial enumeration, jejunal morphology and blood lipid peroxidation in laying hens fed diets with different levels of metabolizable energy

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of milk thistle meal on performance, blood biochemical indices, ileal bacterial counts and intestinal histology in laying hens fed diets containing different levels of metabolizable energy. A total number of 200 Leghorn laying hens (Hy-Line W-36) were randomly assigned to eight experimental treatments with five cage replicates of five birds each. Dietary treatments consisted of four levels of milk thistle meal (0%, 15%, 30% and 60%) and two levels of AME (11.09 and 12.34 MJ/kg) fed over a period of 80 days. In vitro studies revealed that the total phenolic component of milk thistle meal was 470.64 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of the sample, and its antioxidant activity for inhibiting the 2-2-diphenyl-1-picrichydrazyl free radical and reducing ferric ions was about 21% higher than that of butylated hydroxyltoluene (p < .05). Diets containing high level of AME led to improved egg production (p < .05), egg weight (p < .05), egg mass (p < .01) and feed conversion ratio (p < .01). In addition, offering diets containing high energy significantly enhanced (p < .01) serum triglyceride and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations as well as jejunal villus height. Dietary supplementation of 3% milk thistle meal resulted in the best feed conversion ratio (p < .05), reduction of ileal Escherichia coli enumeration (p < .01) and an enhancement in the villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (p < .05). Furthermore, feeding incremental levels of this meal led to remarkable decrease in serum cholesterol, triglyceride and MDA (p < .01) concentrations while significant increase in blood high-density lipoprotein content and goblet cell numbers (p < .05). The present findings indicate that milk thistle meal with high antioxidant and antibacterial properties in laying hen diets may improve health indices and productive performance.

Performance, Biochemical Profile and Antioxidant Activity of Hens Supplemented with Addition of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) Seed Cakes in Diet

“…This trend was confirmed by our trial, although the absolute values compared with Hashemi Jabali et al 2017were lower but it could be influenced by selected hen hybrid. Additionally, the addition of milk thistle flour in the experiment (Hashemi Jabali et al, 2017) did not influenced the weight of the eggs, whereas in our experiment the total egg mass production was statistically significantly higher (P < 0.05), and average weight of one egg was not significantly higher (P > 0.05). On the other hand, Quarantelli et al (2009) examined the addition of 0.2 and 0.4 g / kg silymarin in feed mixture of laying hens did not detect improvement in egg laying or FCR in the experimental group containing 0.2 g / kg of silymarin.…”

“…They not found differences in GGT and AST enzymes activity but also in cytochrome (CYP) 450 34A activity. On the other hand, the feeding of different levels of milk thistle flour to laying hens led to a marked decrease of triglyceride level in the blood of animals compared to the control group (Hashemi Jabali et al, 2017). The authors of Hashemi Jabali et al (2017) further found that 60 g / kg of milk thistle meal reduced the blood cholesterol concentration and raised the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentration in animal blood (P > 0.05).…”

The Milk Thistle Seed Cakes and Hempseed Cakes are Potential Feed for Poultry

“…The study of Halle and Schöne [ 44 ] showed worsened performance of animals with increasing level of crude fiber in the feed mixture. In many scientific publications with the results of experiments dealing with feeding predominantly expellers (or feeding diets containing a high crude fiber content), the authors do not report the crude fiber content in poultry diets [ 40 , 43 , 49 , 55 , 56 ], although the content of this nutrient had to be increased. Therefore, it is difficult to find a recommendation for the right amount of crude fiber in poultry diets, especially when the nutrient requirements standards [ 57 , 58 ] do not specify a crude fiber requirement in feed mixtures.…”

“…The same conclusion was reached by Blevins et al [ 65 ], who added 1000 mg/kg of silymarin to the feed mixture of laying hens, but found no differences in the activity of the enzymes GGT and AST, but also in the activity of cytochrome (CYP) 450 34A. On the other hand, feeding different amounts of milk thistle flour in laying hens led to a significant reduction in the triglyceride levels in the blood of the animals compared to the control group [ 49 ]. The authors Hashemi Jabali et al [ 49 ] further found that a dose of 60 g/kg of milk thistle flour reduced the concentration of blood cholesterol, and conversely increased the concentration of HDL (high density lipoproteins) cholesterol in the blood of animals (p > 0.05).…”

“…On the other hand, feeding different amounts of milk thistle flour in laying hens led to a significant reduction in the triglyceride levels in the blood of the animals compared to the control group [ 49 ]. The authors Hashemi Jabali et al [ 49 ] further found that a dose of 60 g/kg of milk thistle flour reduced the concentration of blood cholesterol, and conversely increased the concentration of HDL (high density lipoproteins) cholesterol in the blood of animals (p > 0.05). The same conclusion was reached by Suchý et al [ 39 ], who found a significantly lower concentration of blood cholesterol in fattened chickens at the forty-third day of age after the addition of 1% milk thistle to the feed mixture.…”